-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Dragonflame.
It's ongoing mission, to confront threats to the Federation when conventional
methods fail. And this is the tale of war! War against a race of robots who
seek to hunt down and destroy all within their path. And it is yet more! A
tale of an even greater evil! One that threatens all!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commander Adama listened to the plan that Captain Lung proposed. It was
interesting, but extremely risky.

"Our 2 ships are a match for their 3, but in the process we could lose a
lot of good men and women," Dragon continued. "Galactica should be here, at
the head of the ships you had to abandon, we mine those ships and wait for
the Cylon fighters to attack."

"According to our own records, that your lov .... uh, Lt. Athena briefed us
on earlier, the Cylons will ignore what they believe to be unarmed ships and
attack Galactica in force," Wildstar added.

"If Baltar is leading that force you will be right Captain Lung," Adama
said. "We don't know for sure that he is. The Cylons may have killed him for
failure."

"Who else would chase you this far?" Dragon asked. "If a Cylon commander was
in charge they would have long since declared the war over since you would no
longer be in their galaxy and therefore no longer a threat to them. I haven't
fought them, but let me ask Captain Apollo and Lt. Starbuck, how many Cylons
did it take to give you a fight?"

"At least 3 sometimes as many as 5," Apollo answered.

"Exactly. Robots, no matter how sophisticated have slower reflexes, also,
they don't have imaginations, they can't think quickly enough, that's also
why the have to have 3 in every ship," Dragon said. "Baltar is human, but
he isn't a warrior. What he knows is what he's learned from getting his ass
kicked. He'll send all his fighters in to overwhelm your Vipers, that's his
style, because he's a sadist. He wants to take his time killing the
civilians."

"So we lure him in, then when his fighters are committed we do the unexpected
and blow those ships up," Wildstar said. "Baltar wouldn't expect that. What
few that survive will be easy pickings for your Vipers."

"Right, we'll be behind them, cloaked," Dragon said, "then we decloak and let
one we think Baltar is on have it with the plasma cannon. It's the most
devastating weapon in our arsenal. As Captain Kirk discovered, it has limited
range, but we're going to hit them point blank. With the shock of that going
on, a special team of my men and Galactica personnel will beam aboard one of
the Cylon 'Basestars' with a fusion bomb. I need at least three volunteers
from Galactica to pull this off, and they must be knowledgeable about Cylons
ships. They will act as guides to show us where to plant this bomb so as to
destroy the second ship. By this time Galactica and Dragonflame will have the
last Basestar destroyed."

"And what about the team on the second ship?" Col. Tigh asked. "How are they
going to have time to plant the bomb, and then how do they escape?"

"My team will protect your personnel," Wildstar said. "Sgt. Asaurus and I
have super human strength, En. Callisto, Lt. Cordon, and Lt. Kang have
special fighting skills, and we have an 'ace in the hole' - Peridot. The
transporter will either retrieve us or Peridot will be able to protect us
until we can be picked up."

"Trust me, this peridot in my palm isn't for show," Peridot said showing her
hand. "My sister has trained me well in using the green energy that is my
birthright. I'll never be as powerful as she is, but I can hold my own."

"Perhaps you should demonstrate," Dragon said.

A green hand appeared, then a second. The first hand picked up a jug of water
and poured it into a glass the second held. The second hand then floated over
to Commander Adama as the pitcher was set down.

"That was very minor," Peridot said, smiling. "I can equal a phaser blast if
I have to."

"Well, it's obvious that Apollo, Starbuck, and either Lt. Sheba or I....."
Boomer started to say.

"Just happen to be our 4 best pilots," Athena said rising. "You 4 are needed
to take out the Cylon fighters then for the counter-attack. I know more about
the layout of Basestars than anybody."

"Athena!" Adama said also rising. "I forbid this!"

"I'm a warrior, the same as Sheba," Athena said angrily. "I claim my right."

"Commander," Bojay said, "I'll be the second member, and I think Sgt. Jolly
should be the third. He's a weapons and demolitions expert."

Commander Adama smiled. His daughter was high spirited and he knew he wasn't
going to win this one. Bojay and Jolly were good fighters. Including them
into the group along with the specialists from the Dragonflame eased his mind
somewhat. Somewhat, but not completely. He had lost his wife and his youngest
son to the Cylons. If he lost Athena or Apollo it would break his heart. Both
were capable and could not be kept out of this. Commander Adama nodded and
sat down.

"All right, I don't like it, but I can't argue the logic of it," Adama
growled.

Final tuning was done to the plan. Galactica then took up it's position,
well away from the dozen abandoned and mined ships. Their full compliment of
Vipers were hid behind them, joined by the 6 from Dragonflame. Dragonflame
cloaked and hid with the void behind them. The 'Away Team' waited on the
teleport deck, along with the Galactica trio and the fusion bomb. Now it was
a waiting game. They didn't have to wait long.

* * *

"Lord Baltar, we are exiting the void," Lucifer reported. "Galactica and a
dozen civilian ships can be seen on our scanners."

"Excellent," Lord Baltar sneered. "Prepare all fighters for attack against
Galactica. Now Adama, I finally have you."

"My lord, there are far too few civilian ships," Lucifer protested. "It may
be a trap."

"No, Adama wouldn't risk civilians like that," Baltar sneered. "That
sentimental fool. It's obvious, Galactica has sent the rest of them ahead
while he has these ships repaired. That will be his downfall!"

The Cylon fighters never knew what hit them as they zigged and zagged between
the decoy ships as they headed for the Galactica. There were indeed few
survivors as a thousand Cylons blew up, destroyed in an instant. The fireball
in space blinded Baltar for an instant. Then the trailing Basestar also went
up as the Romulan weapon ripped right through it. The sight of the
Dragonflame stunned Baltar.

"What? Who....?" Baltar stammered as his world fell apart.

Swiveling in his chair he watched in horror as the Vipers wiped out his few
remaining fighters without suffering a single casualty. Galactica, under full
power was also approaching. Phaser shots ripped into his ship, a photon
torpedo followed. Explosions erupted including one that sheared the head off
Lucifer.

"So, the humans win after all," Lucifer electronically croaked, then was
still.

* * *

Nine figures materialized in a cargo hold close to the engineering section.
Athena had studied Cylon Basestars more than anyone and fortune smiled on
them as they all arrived safely. A wrong calculation, a missed decimal point
and they could have materialized inside the wall or the floor and died
horribly. Weapons were drawn as Athena studied her electronic map.

"The main power core should be down the right side. I'm getting the readings
from that direction," Athena said.

"How close?" Bojay asked.

"On a ship this size, about a mile," Athena said. "Sorry guys, this was the
closest way in that was safe."

"Shall we?" Wildstar grinned.

"Ladies first," Peridot smiled as she used her power to shoot the inside
lock off the door.

"Showoff," Callisto smiled.

The nine of them ran down the hall, they were almost half-way to their
destination before they encountered their first Cylons. Repair workers rather
than Cylons troopers, they were no match for Asaurus and Wildstar. Araurus
punched the head completely off the first, then smashed the heads of 2 more
together. Wildstar swept the feet out from one, jumped and kicked the head
off of a second, spun around and kicked completely through a third, then
stomped the head of the first into circuitry.

"Duck!" Callisto cried out as she threw her ancestors chakram at the first
warrior Cylon that was appearing. The chakram sliced the robots head off,
then bounced off of 2 walls, then a pipe, then back to Callisto's hand.

"Showoff," Peridot grinned at her friend.

The next 100 yards was also easy as the Cylons never dreamed of an attack
like this. Six more repair workers lay smashed in the wake of the invaders
as they skidded to a halt as they rounded a corner. A dozen Cylon warriors
raced to meet them. Blaster, Phaser, and green energy blasts cut them down
quickly.

Time was starting to tick away though. They needed to make the power core.
Wildstar knew that Dragon would send a plasma blast at them if they didn't
hurry. The element of surprise would only last so long before Dragonflame
and Galactica started taking casualties.

"There, straight ahead," Athena called out.

"Aaaaaaayyyyyy!" Jolly screamed as he was hit in the shoulder.

Bojay blasted the Cylon warrior. But more were on the way, from every
direction. Eric, armed with a phaser rifle, and Peridot started a covering
fire on the right. Bojay and Asaurus took the left. Athena unstrapped the
bomb from Jolly's back-pack, Callisto had sedated his arm and was tending
to him. That left Wildstar in the center. His phaser hummed as he shot 2
Cylons down.

But then a Cylon blaster landed just short of his feet, knocking him
backwards, his phaser flying out of his hand.

"Catch," Eric yelled as he threw his rifle to him and drew his hand phaser.

For several moments the small circle of defenders held. Then slowly and
steadily the Cylon numbers began to tell. Eric went down as a near miss
knocked him out cold. Asaurus was bleeding from a graze across his broad
chest. One Cylon foolishly charged him. Asaurus let him have it with a
powerful tail swipe that literally cut the Cylon in 2. Bojay shot 3 more
before a steel fist knocked him backwards. Callisto shot the would be
metallic killer with her own phaser.

Wildstar was in hand to hand combat now. His backfist decapitated a Cylon, a
side kick knocked another one back into several of his fellows. While not in
Dragon's league, Wildstar was a capable martial artist. Backed by his 45 ton
strength Cylon armor crumbled like tissue paper.

"Bombs set!" Athena cried out as she shot a Cylon off Eric.

"Away team, retrieve," Callisto spoke over her communicator. Cylons, sensing
triumph suddenly found themselves alone as nine beams of light faded. The
Cylons didn't have time to contemplate this as their ship exploded into a
trillion pieces.

As the second ship went up, seemingly without being fired on, Baltar knew
that the end had come. Caught off guard his ship was being picked apart. Few
of his guns were even firing. Then, an explosion ripped into his command
center hurling Baltar off his chair.

The battle had taken 12 minutes. The last few guns on the Basestar were now
silent, it was all but ripped in half. Internal explosions racked the huge
dying ship. Not a single Viper had been lost. Two of the Dragonflame's
fighters had taken minor, but repairable damage, the ship itself had only
lost 1 man, with 12 wounded, none of them critical. Aboard the Galactica
casualties were 16 dead, 23 wounded, only 2 critical. The victory had been
complete.

"Commander Adama," Dragon said smiling, "Away Team successfully retrieved,
no fatalities, 4 wounded. This is your victory, I believe you can get a
visual to their bridge."

The sight that greeted both Galactica and Dragonflame was a totally
devastated bridge. Robot parts were everywhere, as were small fires. At
first nothing moved, then a bloody human hand crawled across a console.
His protective patch torn away, revealing a horribly scarred skull like
face, his robotic arm torn away, was the enemy that had caused the
destruction of billions of humans.

"You're beaten, Baltar," Commander Adama said sternly over the Cylon view
screen. "Prepare to be boarded and taken in for trial."

"No, Adama," Baltar defiantly gasped. "This ... this isn't over yet."

Baltar was racked by spasms of coughing. Blood was spit out of his mouth.
He'd never live to stand trial, Adama saw. Perhaps that was fitting. Baltar,
with his last act of defiance jabbed the self-destruct on the console,
determined to try and take Adama and that strange ship with him.

"Shields!" Dragon ordered.

This was another of Dragon's plans. He had worked this trick out with Lt.
Saavik just in case the Cylons tried this. Lt. Saavik used Dragonflame's
shields, not to protect herself, but to surround the massive Basestar in an
attempt to muzzle the explosion. The technique worked, sort of. The resulting
explosion was also an implosion as the Galactica, Dragonflame, and all the
Vipers and fighters were shot through an artificial wormhole.

Even Wildstar was knocked unconscious, but no one died. When the first
stirrings of consciousness began to return the Galactica, Dragonflame, and
everyone else, was safe and sound, but no star patterns were familiar, nor
did any timing device function.

"Lt. Saavik, report," Dragon ordered as he managed to stand and stagger back
to his chair.

"All decks reporting everything's normal and functioning perfectly," Saavik
replied, a nice bump on her head. "All 6 fighters returned and docked, no
further casualties aside from a few bruises."

Aboard the Galactica it was the same. No casualties, the Vipers returning
safely, but all devices of time keeping no longer functioning. Dragon came
on the Galactica screen and he and Adama compared notes.

"We're all alive and relatively unharmed," Commander Adama said. "I think we
should now try to find out just where we are."

"I concur," Dragon replied as Wildstar and Athena joined him on the bridge.
"I also think we should stick together."

"Agreed," Adama said.

That was for the best, strength in numbers. On a far away planet a small
green, almost comical looking creature raised his head.

"I sense a disturbance in the force," it/he said to a muscular black man who
stood nearby, "Jedi, untrained jedi, many of them have appeared from nowhere.
I sense much good, much power. Undisciplined they are."

"Perhaps the days ahead are not as dark as we fear," the man said.

"They must be contacted, yes," it/he said. "The senator is about to leave
with Obi Wan and young Skywalker, go with them and contact them before you
divide up."

"It will be done Master Yoda," Mace Windu said.

The End - Chapter 3

Submit stories to:
[email protected](dot)com
with the title heading "TSSA Story Submission"